Fishing With AOA
Guided, On Your Own, Or Just Fishing For Info, AOA Is The Way
Fishing the Santa Fe - Challenges and rewards of Kayak fishing
The particular stretch of river that Paul and Charlie primarily fish and have extensive experience with is between Canoe Outpost on 441 in High Springs FL to Santa Fe River Park in Gilchrist county off of Hwy 47. This 14 mile stretch produces some great fishing opportunities for anglers.
It is recommended that the trip be broken down into 2 sections.
From Canoe Outpost to Poe Springs or from Poe Springs to Santa Fe River Park.
Paul and Charlie’s favorite section is…
Poe Springs to Santa Fe River park which is our iconic
8 springs in 8 miles paddle trip
This fishery provides ample opportunity to catch a variety of bream to include bluegill, spotted sunfish, and red breasted sunfish.
Moreover it is a solid largemouth bass fishery.
The main attraction is the rare Suwannee Bass which is in the black bass family and the Santa Fe is one of 2 native rivers where this particular fish can be caught.
Fish of the Santa Fe River
Suwannee Bass World Record is only 3 lbs. 14 oz. caught in 1985 on the Suwannee River. Can you be the next record holder?
Typically we fish with light tackle on this river. We prefer micro spin reels with 4’6” rods using a 6lbs test. Kayak and canoe fishing poses a few challenges and we have found that these rod and reel combos are just the right size for the river and for the vessels. You can certainly land a world record Suwannee Bass and if skillful enough you can land a fairly good size largemouth with this setup.
The flow of the river is just around 2 to 2.5 mph. There are shoals along the way and the hydraulics of the river are easy to handle. There is adequate structure for fishing along the banks. We typically use top water Rapala minnows that dive about 8” to 12” when reeling. Casting to the bank, popping the lure a few times as we drift and then retrieving at variable speeds produce the best results. As always fishing around fallen trees and grass areas are recommended too. The best 3 lures we have discovered are the F5 Hot Steel, Original Silver, and the Black and Gold
